At home with Nature

Hot pink hot chocolate days

Hot chocolate is more than just two words – an adjective + a noun – that describe THE official drink of the winter months for me. Oh yes, it brings with it a whole imagery that has the power to soothe (yet energize) a worn out soul even during the darkest of afternoons and greyest of days.

Hot chocolate brings me back to a child-me, who would snuggle up among the throws and cushions of the sofa whilst watching cartoons at a low volume so that I could listen to the wooden spoon hitting the pot as my mum stirred the chocolate to a creamy consistency. When the noise stopped I would jump up from the sofa and head straight into the kitchen where the hot chocolate was already in a cup, piping hot, ready for some serious biscuit dipping business. I was that ‘lucky’!

Then there were the hot chocolates of my teenage years, slowly sipped as me and my best friends chatted away about boys and made plans for the future.

The future when it came brought with it more hot chocolates, not as much at home but out in the cafés of the different towns where I lived: dense sticky spicy hot chocolates in one place, liquid-y blander ones in another, white chocolates, pistachio flavoured ones, topped with cream or not and I could go on forever…

During my wanderings I have realized that most often than not, hot chocolates abroad are made with plenty of ‘liquid’ and little or no ‘flour’ (or other thickener) so that it feels more like a Nesquik drink than an actual melted-choc experience. Needless to say, I prefer the latter: if sin has to be, better make it pretty sinful!

As I got older though, I became more conscious about my gluten and sugar intake and many times I sadly dismissed this drink in favour of much lighter ones like tea.

That was until a few days ago when I stumbled upon a recipe by Elenore of Earthsprout who had been making glorious looking pumpkin based hot chocolate: bling! Basically a sort of hot smoothie with all those yummy add-ins for a festive touch. How come I hadn’t already thought of that? I tried her version which I loved (and I think you should really give it a go, too) but still wanted to skip the sugar and there it dawned on me: beetroots! Does anybody know a sweeter vegetable than these ruby beauties? Plus, chocolate and beetroot cakes have been out there for a while so I wasn’t really heading for disaster I thought.

So here is the result of my messing in the kitchen with cooked beetroots, cocoa, cocoa butter, hazelnut butter, oat milk and …NOTHING ELSE! No thickener required either because the pureed beets give it that perfect creamy consistency I missed so much. So thick that it allowed me to top the drinks with small chunks of dates, a drizzle of hazelnut butter and a sprinkle of chia seeds for garnish. Super healthy and yum, even for the kids! Plus, wanna talk about the colour? Insane, I know. Pink hot choc is just… well, perfection.

So, what do you think, enough babbling and straight to the recipe? I say yessss, you don’t want to waste any more time but spend it with one of these (or both!) beauties in your hands instead. And better for you if you have some veg cream to whip up on top of that as well!